The Buddha’s Eightfold Path is a practice in Buddhism used to achieve Nirvana. It consists of eight separate practices that help an individual reach a better place in their life spiritually and physically. The Eightfold Path consists of right view, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right medication. These tasks each aim to help you work on wisdom, ethics, and your mental discipline. Taking the time to consider each of these options and then put them into practice is not an easy challenge and not many people understand the challenge that comes from detachment and the acceptance of suffering.
Right view and right intention are two of the paths that help with an individual’s wisdom. Right view allowed me to look at my day and understand that I do consider myself attached to some things that can cause suffering. I often play video games and sometimes can fall in a hole where I would not put as much effort as I would like into schoolwork so I can make more time for video games. Another one is caffeine, because over time I have reached a point were going to long without caffeine can leave me with very drowsy and sometimes cause me to have a headache. I attempted to give these up to see where it got me, and the results were mixed. I was able to give up video games a lot easier than I expected and I saw a lot of improvement with the amount of schoolwork and the quality of the work I was submitting. I however was not a fan of giving up caffeine. Although one day I still felt more drowsy than usual and did not feel as if my brain was operating as, it usually does. Overall, I think I can continue to put video games off to the side at least until the end of this semester but I cannot give up caffeine much longer. Next was right intention which was making sure I was sticking to a path I committed myself to. I chose to commit myself to my education as well as improving my work ethic and improving my ability to relax. When this semester started, I knew I had to make a schedule where I would be able to commit time to certain classes on certain days. I made an operated on this schedule for since the start of this semester, but I did not give myself a day off as all seven days of the week were filled with schoolwork on top of a full-time job. I decided to take a day off and try and relax which turned out to prove useful. This helped me in my commitment for education and revitalized my work ethic by giving me a day to recover before continuing my work.
Next were the practices that help my ethics. I always considered myself someone to remain calm and not stoop to the level of the people around me. Right speech asks me to practice this, and I was able to because I always try to remain calm. The harder practice was right livelihood considering that it is a challenge for me to refrain from talking bad about a job I do not enjoy, and something I will continue to work on. Right conduct was by far the easiest of these practices because I do not like anger and confrontation, and I do enjoy acts of kindness, so this is an easy one to practice and keep up.
Finally, the last set of practices are the ones that focus on concentration. These practices chose to be simpler to me compared to the ones that help with ethics and wisdom. Right efforts asks that we generate happiness by taking in only wholesome thoughts and disregarding those whose actions ruin your day. This is not a difficult thing to do because I have always tried to focus on myself and not let others ruin my own perception of myself, but I am not without my faults in this category and will continue to work on this practice. Right mindfulness is a tricky one to me because it asks to consume foods and idea that will nourish the body and mind. I already don’t consume a lot of entertainment media but when I do it is usually in the form of The Simpsons which is a show, I have been a fan of for as long as I can remember. This show however does not nourish or enrich the body or mind in any way other than cause me joy and promotes relaxation which I think counts as a positive in this practice, but I am still unsure. Meditation, or right concentration, is the final practice and is by far the best practice of them all. It is so important to take some time to separate from the outside world and focus and nothing which can do wonders when you feel like you have a little too much on your plate. You can meditate anywhere and anyway that works for you if you are operating with extra attention to your mind and breathing.
The Buddha’s Eightfold path is by no means an easy path for someone to commit to. It requires dedication and not everyone will see results. I have spent a lot of my life adhering to different sets of rules given to me by the different religions I have practiced throughout my life. Nothing really made sense to me until I started practicing Buddhism and understanding that suffering is apart of life and unavoidable. It is coming to terms with this that helps me enjoy the people I surround myself with and how I spend my time more. Taking the time to net let the outside world crush me and if I feel like it’s getting to me taking the time step back and focus on myself. I have been practicing Buddhism for a few years and am very grateful for what it has done for my life.